Finall an Oscar Pistorious Verdict.

At the start of 2013 the US launched its big Rihanna operation. A main focus of this was intended to be west African nations such as Nigeria who had been drafted in to fight Islamist insurgents in Mali. As a result South Africa fully embraced the US' operation both by arranging for two Rihanna concerts in the country in October 2013 and by arranging for Olympic and Para-Olympic runner Oscar Pistorious to shoot and kill his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in February 2013. After all a man killing his girlfriend in their home is pretty much the dictionary definition of domestic violence - an issue that has plagued Rihanna throughout her life.

From the start I thought this was a very risky undertaking for South Africa because they were never in control of the Rihanna operation and as it developed it was quite clear that the US intended for it to be as complicated as possible with its focus going far beyond Mali.

For example the European leg attempted to focus both on the UK's role within the European Union (EU) as well as the EU's expansion eastwards and the effect that had on the relationship with Russia. That issue of course exploded towards the end of 2013 with the Ukraine crisis.

The Asian leg of the tour of which the South Africa concerts were part focused both on the US's relationship with Asian Pacific nations such as China and Thailand where a coup rapidly followed Rihanna's visit and the US relationship with Muslim nations and the Gulf Arab states in particular which have become critical now that the US has been forced to return to Iraq.

This was all being done against the backdrop of global efforts to combat climate change which are extremely complicated and in which South Africa has an important role. As such the Rihanna operation was intended to be more then anybody could cope with meaning that it was intended to do more harm to South Africa then any advantage it would provide.

As it turns out the Rihanna operation was actually a complete failure with west African nations refusing to join in the efforts in Mali and EU nations pretty much ignoring the thing entirely. As a result the main drama of the operation such as the coup in Thailand, the crisis in Ukraine and the war in Iraq are the consequences of the US' failures rather then their successes. By so heavily committing to the operation though South Africa gave itself an extra problem because it still had to put Oscar Pistorious on trial throughout 2014 long after the Rihanna operation it had supposed to have been part of had lost all meaning.

This weakness forced South Africa to rely on support from the UK in order to help manage the international spectacle of the Pistorious trial. As a result the focus of the trial largely became attempts to annoy me. For example the very heavy coverage it received in the UK meant that pretty much every time I turned on the news to find out what was going on in Ukraine, Syria, Iraq, Israel or Palestine I was instead swamped with details of a trail that dealt exclusively with the killing of one woman by one man.

The content of the trial was also scripted to cause confusion. For example during the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) June meeting Pistorious' testimony was supposed to resemble a Court case that I was involved in during the UNFCCC's COP Summit in November 2013. The fact that I wasn't required to give evidence in that trial gives you an idea of just how inaccurate the metaphor was. The issue of Pistorious negligently discharging a firearm in a restaurant sounded very similar to the circumstances of the shooting of Mark Duggan leading up to the UK's August 2011 riots. However the actual inquest into that shooting somehow managed to completely ignore that issue.

Despite these UK led efforts to manage the Pistorious trial it actually became very much a metaphor for discussion about South Africa's decision to involve itself in the Rihanna and therefore the sort of leadership provided by the South African government as a whole. So after much criticism including my recommendation that people vote for the opposition Democratic Alliance Party during South Africa's election the women's league of the governing African National Congress (ANC) Party started picketing the trial trying to claim that Pistorious' alleged crimes were crimes against all of Africa.

On Friday (12/9/14) Pistorious was acquitted of two counts of murder but was convicted on one count of culpable homicide which is a very broad offence covering everything from what is known as manslaughter in the UK right down to reckless endangerment. The reason for the verdict was that Pistorious was found to have acted both negligently and recklessly in the killing of Steenkamp. As such I think this was the right verdict given the circumstances. After all the alternative is the South African government admitting that no crime had been committed because it had given Pistorious permission to kill Steenkamp in much the same way that it is considered a solder in war's national duty to kill.

Therefore in terms of sentencing I don't think anyone should be too surprised if Pistorious only receives a large fine and a suspended prison sentence.


(Originally Posted) 15:05 on 13/9/14 (UK date).